The present invention is in the field of shock absorptive padding such as athletic equipment padding and the like. More specifically, the present invention is directed to a unique shock absorbing pad and a method of fabricating same.
It has been recognized for a number of years that athletic and other shock absorbing padding functions in an enhanced manner if the padding is formed of a plurality of materials of different hardness. Harris U.S. Pat. No. 2,980,167 discloses the basic combination of hard and soft materials in which the soft material comprises soft polyurethane foam in combination with a hard polyurethane foam. Similar disclosures are found in Montgomery U.S. Pat. No. 4,061,384 and Salloum U.S. Pat. No. 3,933,387. Other prior art comprises U.S. Pat. No. 2,697,578 to Whittam; U.S. Pat. No. 3,809,420 to Weller; U.S. Pat. No. 3,852,150 to Weller; U.S. Pat. No. 3,979,110 to Newton; U.S. Pat. No. 4,115,902 to Taylor; U.S. Pat. No. and 4,320,913 to Kuroda.
A shortcoming of the prior known constructions is that the fabrication of the common combination shock absorbing pad formed of a plurality of components having different hardness has always resulted in a substantial amount of waste material so as to consequently increase the cost of the composite pad. Also, prior known shock absorbing pads have frequently failed to provide uniform shock resistance over the entire body of the pad due to the geometric configuration and arrangement of the component parts.
Therefore, it is the primary object of the present invention to provide a new and improved shock absorbing pad that is economical to fabricate and also provides improved shock absorbing capacity.
Achievement of the foregoing object is enabled by the preferred embodiments in which each composite pad is formed of two mating interlocking constituent portions each formed of different materials of which one of the materials is substantially harder than the other material. The composite pads are formed by a unique fabrication technique in which individual mats of the two materials are cut by the single operation of a die which cuts the outline of the desired composite pad and the constituent portions. Interleaved, or transient, pads are consequently formed of a single material with the interim pads being identical to the desired final two-component pad in all respects other than being formed of a single material. Pads formed of a single material consisting of two interlocking halves are consequently formed to provide the interim pad. The two halves of the interim pad are then separated with each half being recombined with a mating half formed of the other product to provide a resultant composite shock absorbing pad one half of which is formed of the harder material and the other half of which is formed of the softer material. The pad halves can be held together by chemical bonding, stitching, or the like in conjunction with the inherent frictional retention of the interleaved components which operates to provide structural integrity for the composite pad.
A better understanding of the disclosed embodiments will be achieved when the following detailed description is considered in conjunction with the appended drawings in which like reference numerals are used for the same parts as illustrated in the different drawing figures.